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Nov 20, 2014eiknarf rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Even at 180 pages the book still feels a bit long. It's probably rude and incorrect to say that there's nothing much profound about it, but nonetheless, the conversational tone kinda makes it feel that way. Murakami mostly sticks to the topic of (long distance) running, venturing out into territories regarding his career as a novelist and experience as a person by using running experiences and training techniques as a springboard. There are a couple of compelling stories about experiences he's had as a runner (for example: running the original marathon path backwards from Athens to Marathon, and his first time running a 62-mile ultramarathon). There are also interesting pieces about his daily life in this period (basically 2005-2007), like descriptions of his leaky roof due to a lingering storm's arrival while his apartment building was under construction. Overall, the book succeeds in giving insight into what attitudes propel this man, introduced metaphorically and detailed (nearly) directly. Slightly tedious, but perhaps exactly as he intended (which if this is the case, he took it easy on us).